"Bloodborne" can't escape Lovecraft

I have previously brought up the genre of "souls-like" games. So it seems fitting to finally get to one of the sources. Bloodborne is separate from the souls series; although "Soulsborne" is typically the word used to refer to FromSoftware's games, and Bloodborne is included in this, it is not contained in the same story. So while not a continuation of Dark Souls, Bloodborne follows a similar structure. The difference is in setting, and combat, and inspiration.

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/bloodborne-for-playstation-4, the Hunter facing off against Dark Beast Paarl.

I am partial to Bloodborne for a lot of reasons. It's definitely one of, if not my favorite from the Soulsborne games. I've talked a bit about the gothic genre on this blog already, and that's on purpose too--I love everything gothic, and I love to see when games take the genre as their own. Bloodborne does something a bit different with its interpretation, though. Namely, the gothic elements of this game are twisted by the absolute chokehold that Lovecraftian horror has on it.

H.P. Lovecraft's work is characterized by an immensely dreadful atmosphere, cosmic beings, and the uncanny. His work set a precedent for the type of horror where humanity is confronted by a power so far from their understanding that is literally shatters their mind if they try to perceive it. But besides this, Lovecraft is a gothic author. He relies a lot on the conventions of traditional gothic literature to paint his stories in their unsettling manner--and unsettling is something the gothic does well. His utilization of the cosmos is certainly a departure from gothic themes, but that's not to say those themes aren't still present in his work.

In Bloodborne, Lovecraft pops up in the player character's mechanics, while slowly bleeding into the designs of the enemies throughout the game. In more of a Victorian setting, Bloodborne starts out in pretty typical gothic fashion. Vampiric and werewolf-looking enemies make up a majority of the first few areas. Sooner or later though, madness begins to affect the enemies around the player, and eventually the player themselves. "Frenzy" is a status effect caused by the Hunter (the player character) being exposed to information or beings from the cosmos--mainly the "Great Ones" (which is a pretty clear Lovecraft reference!) in the game. One of my favorite examples is the Nightmare of Mensis, a location that houses a grotesque being known as the Brain of Mensis.

Upon entering this nightmare, the player is almost immediately assaulted by Frenzy simply by the Brain looking at them. The longer the player is in the line of sight of the Brain, the more the Frenzy builds, and the more damage they take. Here, the player can literally succumb to madness and die from being looked at by a being they cannot comprehend--they can't even see the Brain from where they stand. All they can see is a glowing orange light, emanating from one of the towers in a distant castle. The Nightmare of Mensis is one of the most unsettling areas of the game, and the Brain only serves as a constant fear for the player as they traverse the area, eventually plunging the Brain into a pit of darkness.

After doing so, the player can "make contact" with the Brain of Mensis to receive a rune. Strangely though, the Brain doesn't fight the player. It isn't a boss at all--it doesn't seem to have any malicious intent, actually. The only way it could hurt you was by watching you, but even that isn't necessarily a purposeful attempt to take you out. In fact, this being is almost pitiful; its clearly suffering, with stakes buried deep in its sides, strung up in a tower without its say-so. But it can't die either--the player can "kill" it, but it will respawn. Truly, its only crime was that you couldn't comprehend it, and neither could those studying it.

This rings similar to the cosmic beings present in Lovecraft's work. Take the popular figure Cthulu as an example: it is neither good nor evil, but a being defined by amorality. In both cases, the motives of these beings aren't just unclear--they don't exist in the first place. That's part of being beyond mortal comprehension; even if the "Great ones," the "Old Ones," or even the "Old Great Ones" had a motive, humanity would never understand it. That being said, humanity sees these creatures as destructive and horrifying, simply because there is often a direct, negative effect on them.

In terms of cosmic, Lovecraftian horror, Bloodborne exemplifies the idea of fear created through creatures that operate on such a higher level than humanity, that they literally cannot care about humans. And if they do, they don't say so. The idea that a being can have a power so incomprehensible, and simultaneously have no clear motive for causing destruction and ruin, is terrifying. It's an idea Lovecraft accomplished well in his work, and an idea that FromSoftware's Bloodborne took and carefully encapsulated in video game format.